698 TO B. R. HAYDON, ON SEEING HIS PICTURE OF NAPOLEON Of thought, that give the true poetic thrill; That unencumbered whole of blank and still Sky without cloud ocean without a wave; And the one Man that laboured to enslave The World, sole-standing high on the bare hill Back turned, arms folded, the unapparent face Tinged, we may fancy, in this dreary place, RURAL ILLUSIONS Written at Rydal Mount. Observed a hundred times in the grounds there. SYLPH was it? or a Bird more bright Than those of fabulous stock? A second darted by;- and lo! Another of the flock, And, if you can, the unwieldy toad A frog leaps out from bordering grass, In which he swims as taught by nature, Nor blush if o'er your heart be stealing 10 20 30 Long may you love your pensioner mouse, Though one of a tribe that torment the ful, and kind behaviour to women, of whatever age, I found them, I may say almost always, to be married men. UNTOUCHED through all severity of cold; Inviolate, whate'er the cottage hearth Might need for comfort, or for festal mirth; That Pile of Turf is half a century old: Yes, Traveller! fifty winters have been told Since suddenly the dart of death went forth 'Gainst him who raised it, his last work on earth: Thence has it, with the Son, so strong a hold Upon his Father's memory, that his hands, In annual renovation thus it stands - are rare. "IF THOU INDEED DERIVE THY LIGHT FROM HEAVEN" 1832. 1836 These verses were written some time after we had become residents at Rydal Mount, and I will take occasion from them to observe upon the beauty of that situation, as being backed and flanked by lofty fells, which bring the heavenly bodies to touch, as it were, the earth upon the mountain-tops, while the prospect in front lies open to a length of level valley, the extended lake, and a terminating ridge of low hills; so that it gives an opportunity to the inhabitants of the place of noticing the stars in both the positions here alluded to, namely, on the tops of the mountains, and as winter-lamps at a distance among the leafless trees. IF thou indeed derive thy light from Heaven, Then, to the measure of that heaven-born light, Shine, Poet! in thy place, and be content: And they that from the zenith dart their beams, (Visible though they be to half the earth, Though half a sphere be conscious of their brightness) Are yet of no diviner origin, No purer essence, than the one that burns, Like an untended watch-fire on the ridge Of some dark mountain; or than those which seem Humbly to hang, like twinkling winter lamps, Among the branches of the leafless trees. All are the undying offspring of one Sire: Then, to the measure of the light vouchsafed, Shine, Poet! in thy place, and be content. TO THE AUTHOR'S PORTRAIT Painted at Rydal Mount, by W. Pickersgill, Esq., for St. John's College, Cambridge. 1832. 1835 The six last lines of this Sonnet are not written for poetical effect, but as a matter of fact, which, in more than one instance, could not escape my notice in the servants of the house. Go, faithful Portrait ! and where long hath knelt Margaret, the Saintly Foundress, take thy place; And, if Time spare the colours for the grace Which to the work surpassing skill hath dealt, Thou, on thy rock reclined, though kingdoms melt And states be torn up by the roots, wilt seem To breathe in rural peace, to hear the stream, And think and feel as once the Poet felt. Whate'er thy fate, those features have not grown Unrecognised through many a household tear More prompt, more glad, to fall than drops of dew By morning shed around a flower halfblown; Tears of delight, that testified how true To life thou art, and, in thy truth, how dear! A WREN'S NEST Written at Rydal Mount. This nest was built, as described, in a tree that grows near the pool in Dora's field next the Rydal Mount garden. AMONG the dwellings framed by birds Is none that with the little Wren's No door the tenement requires, Impervious, and storm-proof. So warm, so beautiful withal, And when for their abodes they seek The hermit has no finer eye These find, 'mid ivied abbey-walls, There to the brooding bird her mate Or in sequestered lanes they build, But still, where general choice is good, There is a better and a best; And, among fairest objects, some Are fairer than the rest; ΤΟ UPON THE BIRTH OF HER FIRST-BORN CHILD, MARCH 1833 1833. 1835 Written at Moresby near Whitehaven, when I was on a visit to my son, then Incumbent of that small living. While I am dictating these notes to my friend, Miss Fenwick, January 24, 1843, the child upon whose birth these verses were written is under my roof, and is of a disposition so promising that the wishes and prayers and prophecies which I then breathed forth in verse are, through God's mercy, likely to be realised. "Tum porro puer, ut sævis projectus ab undis Navita, nudus humi jacet, etc."- LUCRETIUS. LIKE a shipwrecked Sailor tost But, O Mother! by the close Of more than mortal recompence ? Them who have, like thee, been true This thy First-born, and with tears 10 20 30 40 50 Stain her cheek in future years - And can earthward bend an ear For needful listening, pledge is here, By that other Guide, whose light Than even now await her prest, THE WARNING A SEQUEL TO THE FOREGOING 1833. 1835 60 70 These lines were composed during the fever spread through the Nation by the Reform Bill. As the motives which led to this measure, and the good or evil which has attended or has risen from it, will be duly appreciated by future historians, there is no call for dwelling on the subject in this place. I will content myself with saying that the then condition of the people's mind is not, in these verses, exaggerated. LIST, the winds of March are blowing; Her ground-flowers shrink, afraid of showing Their meek heads to the nipping air, We, meanwhile, our hope will keep; |